Cool Winter Color Palette: The Complete Guide

Cool winter is the coolest season in the whole system, and the winter that borders summer. It keeps winter's clarity and contrast and turns the temperature all the way down: every color in the cool winter color palette is blue-based, crisp and icy, like a frozen lake at noon, where the ice is white, the shadows are blue-black and the sky above is a clear, cold sapphire. If silver has always beaten gold without contest, if a fuchsia or a royal blue top makes your eyes look like they have been switched on, and if orange, camel and mustard have always made you look faintly ill, there is a good chance this is your season.

This guide explains what cool winter means in color terms and answers the question that comes up most: is a cool winter a true winter? It covers how to read a cool undertone, which is harder than most guides admit, then gives you a feature-by-feature description with five at-home tests. It walks through the full palette by color family with hex codes, explains the difference between an icy color and a pastel, which is the thing that makes this season work, and lists the colors to avoid and why. Then it covers how cool winter differs from cool summer, deep winter, true winter, bright winter and soft summer, and translates all of it into a wardrobe, a makeup bag and a hair color. It also covers the cases most guides skip: cool winter men, cool winter blondes, and cool winters going silver.

What is a cool winter?

Cool winter is one of the 17 seasons used in modern seasonal color analysis, and the cool winter color season describes people whose natural coloring, meaning skin, hair and eyes together, is primarily cool and secondarily clear, with medium-high to high contrast between features.

Coolness is the defining trait. Your undertone is blue or pink, with no gold in it at all, and every color in the palette carries blue. Clarity comes second: your colors are crisp and clean rather than dusty, which is what keeps you in the winter family rather than the summer one. Because cool winter flows toward summer, summer's influence softens it a touch: the palette is a little less saturated than bright winter's, a little less dark than deep winter's, and it contains a whole run of icy lights and cool greys that the other winters use only as accents.

The easiest way to picture it is as a position on the seasonal flow. The winter family has four seasons in the system MySwatches uses. Deep winter borders autumn and is the darkest. Bright winter borders spring and is the most vivid. True winter sits at the center, with the starkest black-and-white contrast. Cool winter borders summer and is the iciest. A cool winter stands with one foot on the summer line: cool enough to wear silver grey and icy lilac, still winter enough that dusty rose, slate and heather look flat and grey on them.

Where cool winter sits on the color wheel

Every season is defined by where it falls on three scales: hue, value and chroma. The cool winter color palette is defined almost entirely by the first.

Hue (temperature): how warm or cool you are. You are as cool as the system goes. Blue or pink under the skin and no visible gold anywhere. Of all 17 seasons, cool winter and cool summer are the two furthest from warm, which is why the two are sometimes confused and why the cool winter color wheel is essentially the blue-to-magenta half of the spectrum, with the warm half missing.
Value (depth): how light or dark you are. You range from medium to dark, and the palette runs all the way from pure white to blue-black, with the icy lights and the deep darks both in play.
Chroma (saturation): how bright or muted you are. You are medium-high. Cool winter colors are clear and crisp, cleaner than any summer's, but a little less electric than bright winter's. Think of a jewel under frost rather than a neon sign.

If you take one thing from this section, take this: cool winter is cool first and clear second. If a color makes your skin look clean and the whites of your eyes look whiter, it is yours. If it makes you look yellow, sallow, grey or tired, however lovely it is on the hanger, it is not.

Is a cool winter a true winter?

The People Also Ask box on Google asks exactly this, and so does a busy Reddit thread titled "Cool winter vs true winter". The honest answer is: it depends which system you are using.

In the classic 12-season system, "cool winter" and "true winter" are two names for the same season, the pure cool winter at the center of the family. Many guides, including the one currently ranking first for this search, use the two names interchangeably. If you were analyzed under a 12-season system and told you are a true winter, you may also see your palette labelled cool winter, and nothing has changed.

In the 16-season and 17-season systems, including the one MySwatches uses, they are two distinct palettes. True winter is the center of the winter family: stark, crisp and high-contrast, with the purest black-and-white in the system. Cool winter is the sub-season that flows from winter toward summer, so summer's influence starts to show: the colors are just as cool, but a touch softer and a touch lighter, and the palette gains icy lights, silver greys and cool, medium tones that the center of the family uses more sparingly. Think of true winter as a black-and-white photograph and cool winter as the same photograph printed on silver, with the same coolness but more tones in between.

Why does the distinction matter? Because a cool winter dressed in the stark center-of-family palette can look a little severe, as if the contrast had been turned up one notch too far, and a true winter dressed in cool winter colors can look slightly faded in the icy greys. The palettes overlap heavily, so neither mistake is a disaster. But if you have ever felt that winter's black-and-white was almost right and just a little too harsh, and that a silver grey or an icy blue felt more like you, cool winter is the answer to that feeling. This guide is about that icier, slightly softer winter.

Cool winter undertones: how to read a cool undertone

The People Also Ask box also asks what cool winter undertones are, and it is a better question than it sounds, because undertone is the most misread thing in the whole of color analysis. Cool winter depends on it more than any other season does, so it is worth getting right.

Undertone is not the color you see. The color of your skin on the surface is the overtone: fair, olive, tan, deep brown. The undertone is the temperature underneath it, and it can be cool at any depth. A cool winter can be porcelain, olive, medium brown or deep ebony. The undertone is what decides whether gold or silver, orange or fuchsia, cream or white harmonizes with the skin.

A cool undertone reads blue, pink or neutral-cool. In fair skin it shows as a pinkish or rosy cast, sometimes a faint blue at the temples and under the eyes. In olive skin it shows as a cool, slightly greenish-grey cast rather than a golden one, which is why olive-skinned cool winters are so often mistyped as autumns. In deep skin it shows as a cool, blue-black or plum-toned richness rather than a red-gold or bronze one.

The quick signs, in order of reliability:

• Metal: silver makes the skin look clean and the eyes brighter; yellow gold makes the skin look sallow. This is the most reliable single sign.
• White: optic white looks fresh against the face; cream makes the skin look yellow.
• Orange: a clear orange makes the skin look sallow or grey; a fuchsia makes it look alive.
• Veins: wrist veins look blue or purple rather than green. This is the least reliable sign, because it depends on lighting and skin thickness, so treat it as a tiebreaker rather than a verdict.

If all four point cool, you are in the cool half of the wheel. The tests in the next section decide whether you are a cool winter or one of its neighbors.

Cool winter characteristics: how to know if you are one

Here is what cool winter coloring looks like, feature by feature, followed by five tests you can do at home in daylight.

Skin

Cool, with blue, pink or neutral-cool undertones, from very fair and porcelain through cool olive and cool beige to deep, cool brown. The cool winter skin tone often has a clear, slightly translucent quality, and fair cool winters can burn and tan almost equally easily. What every cool winter skin tone has in common is how it reacts to color: it looks crisp and even next to royal blue, fuchsia, emerald and pure white, looks sallow or yellow next to orange, camel and cream, and looks grey or dull next to dusty, muted colors.

Eyes

Clear and cool: icy blue, cool blue, blue-grey, cool green, grey-green, cool hazel with grey rather than gold, cool dark brown and black-brown. Cool winter eyes have no visible gold or amber, and they often show a defined dark ring around the iris and strong contrast against the whites of the eyes. Warm, golden or amber eyes usually point to another season.

Hair

Medium ash brown, dark ash brown, cool dark brown, brown-black and blue-black, with no red, copper or golden highlights. Cool winter hair looks cool in every light and does not lighten to gold in the sun. Some cool winters are born with, or go early to, a striking silver or white, which suits the season beautifully. A natural cool winter blonde is rare but exists, usually as a very fair, ash or platinum blonde with dark brows and clear, cool eyes.

Contrast

Medium-high to high. In a black and white photo, a cool winter shows a clear difference between hair and skin, or between the iris and the whites of the eyes, but the contrast is a touch less stark than a true winter's. This is why a cool winter can wear black with white, and can also wear an icy blue with charcoal or a silver grey with navy, softer contrasts that the center of the family can find a little weak.

Five tests to do at home

Do these in natural daylight, without makeup, in front of a mirror.

The silver and gold test. Hold silver jewelry against your face, then yellow gold. On a cool winter the difference is not subtle: silver makes the skin look clean and the eyes look brighter, and gold makes the skin look yellow or greenish and a little tired. If gold is anywhere near a tie, you are not a cool winter.

The white and cream test. Pure optic white against your face, then a warm cream. The optic white should look fresh and bright; the cream should make the skin look sallow. If the cream looks better, you are warmer than a winter.

The fuchsia and raspberry test, for cool winter versus cool summer. Hold a clear, saturated fuchsia near your face, then a softer raspberry. If the fuchsia lights you up and the raspberry looks a bit flat, you are a winter. If the fuchsia is "too much" and the raspberry looks perfect, you are a cool summer. This is the best single test for the most important border of the season.

The icy test, for cool winter versus the other winters. Hold an icy blue or icy pink near your face on its own, with nothing dark nearby. A cool winter looks fresh and clear in it. A deep winter looks a little washed out and needs a dark next to it. A bright winter looks a little flat and wants something more vivid. If the icy color alone looks right, you are the cool one.

The black and navy test. Drape pure black near your face, then a deep navy. A cool winter looks good in both. If black looks noticeably harsh and navy looks noticeably better, you are more likely a cool summer. If black looks sharper and more striking than anything else, you are more likely a true or deep winter. If both look good and the choice is close, you are in cool winter territory.

If you want to skip the guesswork, the free MySwatches palette quiz walks you through this with your own photos and tells you which of the 17 seasons matches. Take the free palette quiz

Cool winter color palette swatches

Here are the cool winter color palette swatches, organized by how you actually get dressed: neutrals first, because they will be most of your closet, then the colors you build around them. You will notice that the palette covers roughly half of the color wheel, the blue, purple and pink half, with the warm half almost entirely missing, and that it runs from icy lights all the way to blue-black.

Cool winter neutrals

Cool winter neutrals are the cool greys, blue-blacks and crisp whites of a winter city: frost, steel, slate and ink.

• Lights: pure white, optic white, icy grey, silver grey, pale cool grey, frost white.
• Mids: medium cool grey, steel grey, pewter, cool slate, blue-grey, cool taupe with grey in it.
• Darks: black, blue-black, navy, midnight navy, charcoal, deep slate, cool dark brown with no red in it.

Your whites are pure white and optic white, and your darks are black, blue-black, navy and charcoal. Grey is where cool winter parts ways with the other winters: a cool winter can wear a medium silver grey or a steel grey near the face and look polished rather than drab, which is harder for the deeper and brighter winters. The cool winter neutrals to be careful with are all the warm ones: beige, tan, camel, cream, ivory, khaki and warm brown will all make you look sallow.

Cool winter colors by family

• Cool winter pinks: fuchsia, cool hot pink, magenta, carnation pink, deep rose, raspberry, cool bubblegum, and icy pink. Pink is one of the most flattering families for a cool winter, and a clear fuchsia near the face is close to a signature.
• Reds: true red, blue-red, cherry red, cool crimson, cranberry, ruby, burgundy with blue in it. A clear, cool true red is one of the most striking colors a cool winter can wear.
• Purples: royal purple, amethyst, violet, grape, cool plum, bold purple, and icy lilac. Winters can wear deep blues and rich purples effortlessly, and cool winter most of all.
• Blues: royal blue, cobalt, sapphire, true blue, navy, cool cerulean, and icy blue. Blue is the heart of the palette, and a royal blue or a sapphire near the face is one of your best colors.
• Greens: emerald, jungle green, bottle green, pine, cool jade, blue-green, and icy mint. Every cool winter green has blue in it; a yellow-based green is not yours.
• Yellows: a clear, icy lemon is the only yellow, and it works as an accent against a dark. There is no orange at all.

The through-line of the cool winter palette colors is that every color looks like it has been chilled: mixed with blue and made crisp. If a color looks warm, golden, dusty or earthy, it is not yours. If it looks like it could be frozen, a jewel under frost, a cold sky or an icy flower, it almost certainly is.

Twelve cool winter colors with hex codes

People ask for cool winter color palette swatches and hex codes to build mood boards and capsule wardrobe plans. These twelve are approximate reference points for the signature colors, not an official palette, and screens vary. Use them to recognize the family, not to match fabric.

• Icy blue: #D6ECF3
• Icy pink: #F4D9E6
• Icy lilac: #E3DAF0
• Royal blue: #2B4FBF
• Navy: #1C2A5A
• Cool fuchsia: #D1127A
• True red: #C8102E
• Emerald: #009B77
• Amethyst: #7B4FA2
• Blue-black: #0A0F1E
• Silver grey: #C0C4CA
• Pure white: #FFFFFF

Sister palettes, and what you can borrow

Cool winter has one direct neighbor on the summer side and the rest of the winter family on the other, and you can borrow carefully from both.

From cool summer, the softer side: a raspberry, a French blue, a soft plum, a cool rose. These share your coolness. Pick the clearest, most saturated version of each, and pair it with a winter neutral like charcoal or navy rather than with a soft grey.

From the center of the winter family: a stark black, a crisp optic white, a pure true red. These share your coolness and clarity. Wear them freely; they are the sharpest versions of what you already wear.

From deep winter, the darker side: a burgundy, a blackberry, a deep emerald. These work well, but keep them on the cooler end and skip anything with a brown cast.

From bright winter, the more vivid side: an electric blue, a hot magenta, a clear lime-lemon. These work as accents, but at full strength they can look a little loud on a cool winter.

The rule for borrowing from summer is to sharpen; the rule for borrowing from the rest of winter is to cool. If a summer color looks dusty on the hanger, or a winter color looks warm or electric on the hanger, put it back.

Icy, not pastel: the cool winter signature

This is the section that makes the season click, and it is the thing most cool winters get wrong. The palette contains a run of very light colors, and people see "light pink" or "light blue" and reach for pastels. Pastels are usually wrong. Icy colors are right. They look alike on a rail and behave completely differently on a face.

A pastel is a color softened with white and grey. Baby pink, powder blue, dusty lavender, sage mint. Pastels are gentle and slightly chalky, and that softness belongs to the summers. On a cool winter, a pastel looks faded and a little dull, and it makes the face look tired by comparison.

An icy color is pure white with a single drop of clear, cool color. Icy blue, icy pink, icy lilac, icy mint, icy lemon. They are just as light as pastels, but they are crisp and clean rather than soft and chalky, like frost on a window or the blue at the edge of an ice cube. That crispness is exactly what harmonizes with your coloring, and an icy color near the face makes a cool winter look luminous.

A quick test in the store: hold the light color against a sheet of pure white paper. If it looks greyed, chalky or powdery against the white, it is a pastel and belongs to a summer. If it looks like the white paper itself has been tinted, clean and bright, it is an icy color and it is yours.

How to wear them. Cool winter is the one winter that can wear icy colors on their own, without a dark anchor. An icy blue shirt with grey trousers, an icy pink knit with jeans, an icy lilac dress with silver sandals: all of them look fresh and polished on you. For more drama, pair the icy color with its dark cousin: icy blue with navy, icy pink with burgundy, icy lilac with royal purple. That is the cool winter version of black and white, and it is one of the most elegant looks in the whole system.

Cool winter colors to avoid, and why

Every cool winter has a list of worst colors, and it is almost exactly the warm half of the wheel plus anything dusty or earthy.

• Orange, coral, peach, apricot, rust, terracotta: the whole warm-orange family. They make cool winter skin look sallow and grey at once.
• Golden yellow, mustard, gold, marigold: warm and heavy. Your only yellow is an icy lemon.
• Camel, tan, beige, caramel, golden brown: the autumn neutrals. On a cool winter they look like the color has drained out of the face.
• Cream, ivory, warm off-white: they look yellow next to cool skin. Your white is pure white.
• Olive, khaki, moss, warm lime: yellow-based greens. Your greens are emerald and pine.
• Muddy, earthy greens and browns: the colors of the autumn forest floor. They make you look washed out and tired.
• Dusty, muted colors: dusty rose, mauve, sage, slate blue, heather, greige. These are soft summer colors, and on a cool winter they look flat and grey.
• Warm reds: tomato, brick, orange-red. Your red is a blue-based true red.

None of these is forbidden. If you love one, wear it away from your face, in trousers, a skirt, shoes or a bag, and keep your best colors at the neckline. A cool winter in camel trousers and a royal blue top can carry them off. The one place to be strict is next to the face, because this is the season where warmth shows fastest.

Cool winter versus the seasons it gets confused with

Getting the season right is what makes the palette work, and cool winter has look-alikes on both sides of the flow.

Cool summer vs cool winter

This is the most searched comparison for the season, the one people type as cool summer vs cool winter and cool winter vs cool summer, and it is the border that matters most, because the two seasons are both as cool as the system goes. Both wear navy, raspberry, cool pink, sapphire and silver. The difference is chroma and contrast. A cool winter has medium-high to high contrast and looks best in clear, saturated cool colors: fuchsia, royal blue, emerald, true red, pure white and black. A cool summer has medium contrast and looks best when those same colors are turned down one notch: raspberry instead of fuchsia, French blue instead of royal blue, soft white instead of optic white, navy instead of black. Summers need delicate tones; winters need bold ones. The fuchsia and raspberry test and the black and navy test above settle it.

Cool winter vs deep winter

Deep winter is the winter that borders autumn: darker and slightly warmer, neutral-cool rather than fully cool. Cool winter is the winter that borders summer: icier and fully cool. A deep winter looks best in the deepest jewel tones, can wear a black-brown or a dark antique gold, and needs a dark anchor to wear icy colors. A cool winter looks best in cool, crisp colors, can wear icy colors on their own, and looks slightly wrong in any brown. If a deep teal or an antique gold looks fine on you, you are a deep winter. If they look wrong and silver grey looks right, you are a cool winter.

True winter vs cool winter

Covered in full above. In short: in the 12-season system they are the same season; in the 17-season system cool winter is the icier, slightly softer sub-season that flows toward summer, and true winter is the stark center of the family. If the purest black-and-white contrast looks exactly right on you, you are the center. If it looks a touch harsh and icy greys and cool mid-tones feel more like you, you are a cool winter.

Cool winter vs bright winter

Bright winter is the winter that borders spring: the most saturated and vivid, neutral-cool, with electric fuchsia, bright cobalt and clear lemon. Cool winter is fully cool and a touch softer. If vivid, electric colors make you glow and icy colors look flat, you are a bright winter. If icy colors and crisp cool jewel tones look best and electric brights look a little loud, you are a cool winter.

Soft summer vs cool winter

The cool winter vs soft summer mix-up is less common, but it happens to cool-toned people with dark ash-brown hair. Soft summer is muted and medium: dusty rose, slate blue, sage, heather. Cool winter is clear and high-contrast. A soft summer looks harsh in fuchsia and black; a cool winter looks sharp in them. A cool winter looks grey in dusty colors; a soft summer looks calm in them. If clear colors make your eyes sparkle, you are a cool winter.

Building a cool winter wardrobe

How to combine your colors: cool winter color palette outfits

Medium-high contrast is the guiding principle for cool winter outfits, because medium-high contrast is what your own coloring has. Cool winter color palette clothing, and cool winter color palette fashion in general, looks best when it is crisp, cool and defined. The cool winter outfit ideas and cool winter palette outfits below all follow that rule.

• Best: a dark neutral with a clear cool color. Navy with fuchsia. Black with royal blue. Charcoal with emerald. Blue-black with icy pink.
• Best: an icy color with its dark cousin. Icy blue with navy. Icy pink with burgundy. Icy lilac with royal purple. This is the cool winter signature pairing.
• Good: black and white together, the classic winter pairing, which suits you well.
• Good: cool grey with a clear accent. Silver grey with true red. Steel grey with sapphire. Grey is a genuine neutral for you, not a compromise.
• Avoid: tonal outfits in dusty mid-tones, neutrals-only outfits in beige or taupe, and anything warm near the face.

A quick check before you leave the house: squint at the mirror. You should see a crisp, cool, defined picture with your face as the focal point. If everything reads as one grey mid-tone, add a clear color or a dark. If one piece looks warm next to the rest, swap it.

A cool winter capsule wardrobe

These fifteen pieces cover most of life and combine in almost any order, because every one is in the cool winter color palette. Think of them as the cool winter clothes you will actually reach for, and the cool winter color palette clothes everything else is built around.

• A navy blazer and a black or charcoal blazer.
• Navy trousers and silver grey or charcoal trousers.
• Dark indigo jeans and a crisp white shirt.
• A white t-shirt and a black t-shirt.
• A royal blue knit and a fuchsia knit.
• An icy blue or icy pink shirt.
• An emerald or amethyst blouse for color.
• A true red or royal blue dress, and a black dress for evenings.
• A charcoal or navy coat, and a black leather jacket.
• Shoes and bag in black, navy, silver grey or burgundy.

Cool winter dresses deserve a note. A dress is a large block of color next to the face, and the safest cool winter dress colors, and the safest cool winter clothing colors in general, are royal blue, fuchsia, emerald, true red and icy blue, with a crisp, high-contrast print on a navy or white ground as the safest pattern.

Denim

Dark, saturated denim is your friend: deep indigo, raw denim, black denim and a crisp white denim. A clean mid-blue works too. Skip faded, vintage, yellow-tinted and heavily distressed washes, which read muddy against cool, clear coloring.

Patterns and prints

The best prints for a cool winter use cool winter colors at medium-high contrast, in crisp, modern shapes: geometric prints, bold stripes in navy and white or black and white, houndstooth, polka dots, abstract prints, graphic florals on a dark or white ground, color-block. Glossy, structured fabrics suit the season well. What to skip is faded watercolor prints, earthy paisleys, warm animal prints and naturalistic florals in soft, dusty colors.

Metals and cool winter jewelry

Silver, without contest.

• Best metals: silver, platinum, white gold, pewter, chrome, polished steel. Polished and high-shine finishes suit you as well as brushed ones.
• Also fine: a pink-toned rose gold in small pieces, and gunmetal.
• Avoid: yellow gold, copper, brass, bronze and anything rustic or antiqued with a warm cast.

Stones and materials for cool winter jewelry: sapphire, diamond, amethyst, emerald, ruby, black onyx, tanzanite, aquamarine in its crisp blue form, blue topaz, white pearls, crystal and glossy enamel. Skip amber, citrine, coral, tiger's eye and anything warm or earthy.

Glasses: frames in black, navy, silver, crystal clear, cool grey, burgundy or a crisp blue. A heavy black frame suits a cool winter well; a warm tortoiseshell does not.

For work

A cool winter's professional wardrobe is one of the easiest in the system, because the corporate staples of navy, charcoal, grey, black and white are all yours. Build it on navy, charcoal, silver grey and black for suits and trousers, with white, icy blue and icy pink for shirts and blouses, and accent with royal blue, fuchsia, emerald or true red. A navy suit with a crisp white shirt and a red lip, or a charcoal suit with an icy blue shirt, looks authoritative and polished on you.

Weddings and occasions

• As a bride: pure white or optic white, the crispest white on the rail. Ivory and champagne can look yellow on you. A white gown with silver or crystal detail and a bouquet in white, icy blue or fuchsia is the classic cool winter look.
• As a guest: royal blue, fuchsia, emerald, amethyst, true red, icy blue, and black or navy for evening.
• For the groom or a suit: navy, charcoal, black, silver grey, with a white shirt and a tie in royal blue, fuchsia, burgundy or silver.

Cool winter for men

Cool winter is common in men and, like deep winter, easy to dress, because the default men's wardrobe of navy, grey, black and white is already right. A cool winter man has ash brown, dark ash brown or black hair, or a striking early silver, cool skin at any depth, and clear blue, grey, green or cool brown eyes, and his beard grows in dark, ash or grey with no red in it. The fixes are small and mostly subtractive. Drop the camel, tan, olive and khaki. Keep navy, grey, black and white. For color, royal blue, emerald, true red, cool burgundy and icy blue are the easy wins: an icy blue shirt with a navy suit, an emerald knit over a white shirt, a burgundy tie on a charcoal suit, a royal blue polo with grey trousers. Metals should be silver or steel, and a black or silver frame suits you. The cool winter color palette men need is short, crisp and very easy to shop for.

How to use your palette in the store

Cool winter is a palette of temperature calls, and temperature is exactly what warm store lighting hides. The "true red" that is really a tomato red. The "navy" that has a warm, dusty cast. The "icy pink" that is a peachy blush. The "grey" that is a warm greige in daylight. Under warm shop lights every color looks warmer than it is, so warm impostors get through, and memory is not a reliable judge of whether a color has blue or yellow in it.

That is exactly what the MySwatches Personal Swatch Card is for. It is a transparent, credit-card-sized card printed with your cool winter color palette, so you hold it directly against the fabric and see at once whether the color belongs. Because the card is see-through, you are comparing the actual dye to the actual shade rather than a photo to a memory. It is waterproof, scratch resistant, and lives in your wallet. See the Cool Winter card

Cool winter makeup

The mistake most cool winters make with makeup is warmth. The industry's "natural" look is built on warm beiges, peachy blushes, bronzer and golden highlight, and on a cool winter every one of those turns the skin sallow. The second mistake is timidity: a cool winter face has the clarity to carry a strong lip or a defined eye, and a barely-there look can read as washed out. Cool winter makeup should be cool, clean and defined, a crisp version of your own coloring with one clear color. The cool winter color palette makeup shades below all follow that logic.

Foundation and base

Cool or neutral-cool, with a pink, rosy or cool olive base, matched in daylight. Avoid anything labelled warm, golden or honey. Skip warm bronzer; if you want dimension, use a cool, grey-taupe contour. Highlighter should be silver, icy pink or a cool pearl, never gold.

Blush

Cool berry, cool rose, pink-mauve, raspberry, clear cool pink, fuchsia used sheer. Avoid peach, apricot, coral, terracotta and anything with orange or brown in it.

Lips and cool winter lipstick colors

Your best cool winter lipstick colors are true red, blue-red, crimson, raspberry, berry, cranberry, wine, burgundy, plum, fuchsia and a cool pink nude. A clear, blue-based true red is the classic cool winter lip, and a fuchsia or raspberry lip with otherwise simple makeup is close to a signature. Matte, satin and cream all work, and a cool winter can wear a strong matte red better than most seasons. Avoid coral, peach, orange-red, brick, terracotta and warm beige nudes.

Eyes and the cool winter makeup palette

• Shadows: charcoal, silver, cool taupe, deep plum, navy, icy white, icy lilac, icy blue, grey, smoky black. A cool winter eyeshadow palette of icy white, cool taupe, deep plum and charcoal covers day and evening, and those four shades are the core of any cool winter makeup palette. A smoky eye in charcoal and silver suits the season beautifully. The cool winter makeup colors to avoid on the eyes are gold, bronze, copper, warm brown, peach and orange.
• Liner: black, charcoal, navy, deep plum. Black liner works well on a cool winter, and a crisp black wing suits the season's clarity.
• Mascara: black.
• Brows: cool ash brown, dark cool brown or soft black, defined. Avoid warm brown pencils, which turn reddish on cool brows.

Cool winter nail colors

True red, fuchsia, raspberry, burgundy, royal blue, navy, emerald, amethyst, icy pink, icy blue, crisp white, silver and black. Cool winter nails look best clear, crisp and glossy. Skip coral, peach, orange, mustard, beige nudes, warm browns and gold glitter.

The MySwatches Personal Makeup Card takes the same cool winter palette and translates it into lipstick, blush and eyeshadow shades, so you can hold it up to a tester and know.

Cool winter hair color

The People Also Ask box asks what the best hair color for a cool winter is. Your natural hair is already in your palette, which is why the best cool winter hair colors stay close to nature: cool, ash-toned and clean, with no gold, red or brass anywhere.

• Best: cool dark brown, dark ash brown, espresso with no red, brown-black, soft black, blue-black, and a natural silver or white.
• Good for a change: a cool violet-black gloss, a deep plum or cool burgundy tint, an icy platinum for very fair cool winters, or a sleek silver. These are the cool winter hair color ideas that add polish without adding warmth.
• Avoid: golden brown, caramel, honey, copper, auburn and any warm red, golden or brassy blonde, and warm balayage. They all introduce warmth your coloring cannot carry.

If you add dimension, choose cool, ash or violet-based lowlights rather than warm highlights. Ask your colorist for "cool and clean, no warmth" with an ash or violet-based toner, and use a blue or purple shampoo to keep brass away. For the best hair color for cool winter skin tone in one phrase: "cool brown, black or silver, and never golden".

Cool winter blonde hair

Cool winter blonde hair is a real option in a way it is not for deep winter, because cool winter is a touch lighter and fully cool. The rule is that the blonde must be icy: a true platinum, a cool white-blonde or an ash blonde with no gold or beige in it. On a fair cool winter with dark brows and clear, cool eyes, an icy platinum creates a striking contrast of its own. What never works is a golden, honey, caramel or beige blonde, which warms the whole face and makes cool skin look sallow. If you go blonde, keep the brows defined and dark, use a purple shampoo religiously, and add a clear, cool lip so the face keeps its contrast.

Cool winter going silver

Cool winters have one real advantage: they grey beautifully. Your hair is already cool, so incoming grey reads as clean silver or white rather than yellow, and a silver cool winter often looks more striking than a dyed one. Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan, both commonly typed cool winter, are the proof. Keep the silver bright and clean with a purple shampoo, keep the brows defined, and lean into the icy colors and clear jewel tones, which look even better against silver hair.

Cool winter celebrities and examples

Nobody has draped these people in person, and celebrity typing from photos is never certain, so treat these cool winter examples as a visual reference rather than a verdict. Because 12-season systems use "cool winter" and "true winter" interchangeably, many of these names appear in both lists. The names that come up most often in cool winter color palette celebrities lists:

• Katy Perry: dark hair, clear blue eyes and fair, cool skin, and a signature look built on cool, saturated color and red lips.
• Brooke Shields: dark brown hair, dark brows, cool skin and clear eyes, a classic cool winter reference.
• Naomi Campbell: deep, cool skin, dark eyes and dark hair, and a career of looking spectacular in black, white, royal blue and fuchsia.
• Dita Von Teese: blue-black hair, porcelain skin and a red lip, often cited as the purest visual example of cool winter contrast.
• Helen Mirren: the reference for a silver cool winter, with white-silver hair, cool skin and clear blue eyes that come alive in icy blue, royal blue and fuchsia.
• Demi Moore: dark hair, dark eyes and cool skin, often typed cool winter for her ease in black and jewel tones.
• Pierce Brosnan and Matt Bomer: the two most common cool winter men. Dark or silver hair, cool skin and strikingly clear blue eyes, both at their best in navy, grey and white.
• Catherine Zeta-Jones: the contested one. She is typed cool winter and deep winter in different places, because her coloring sits close to the dark end of the winter family. If you have had two analysts disagree about you, she is proof that the borders inside the winter family are real.

What they have in common is not a skin tone, which ranges from porcelain to deep. It is coolness with clarity: blue or pink undertones, clear eyes, crisp contrast, and a face that looks sharp in royal blue and fuchsia and sallow in camel and orange.

Beyond the closet

Once you know your palette, it tends to spread. Cool winters often find that the colors that flatter their face are the ones they want to live with: white walls, chrome and glass, silver-grey upholstery, a royal blue or emerald accent, white marble, black-and-white tiles, crisp white linen. It is not a coincidence. Colors that harmonize with you are easier on the eye, yours and everyone else's, and a room in your palette photographs you well too. The cool winter palette is also the palette of most "modern minimalist" and "Scandinavian winter" interiors, so there is no shortage of inspiration.

Frequently asked questions about cool winter

What colors look best on cool winters?

The cool winter best colors are the cool, clear ones: royal blue, sapphire, navy, fuchsia, true red, emerald, amethyst, and the icy lights, icy blue, icy pink and icy lilac, on a base of pure white, silver grey, charcoal and black. If you only ever bought those, you would never wear anything wrong.

What is the single best color for a cool winter?

A Reddit thread asks winters exactly this, and the answers cluster around three colors: royal blue, fuchsia and true red. For most cool winters, a clear royal blue or sapphire near the face is the single most flattering color, because it echoes both the coolness of the skin and the clarity of the eyes.

Is cool winter the same as true winter?

In the 12-season system, yes, they are two names for the same season. In 16 and 17-season systems, including the one MySwatches uses, they are two distinct palettes: true winter is the stark center of the winter family, and cool winter is the icier, slightly softer sub-season that flows toward summer. The full explanation is in the section near the top of this guide.

What are some cool winter undertones?

Blue, pink and neutral-cool. In fair skin they read rosy or pinkish, in olive skin they read cool and slightly grey-green rather than golden, and in deep skin they read blue-black or plum rather than red-gold. The full explanation is in the undertone section above.

What colors should a cool winter avoid?

Orange, coral and peach, golden yellow and mustard, camel, tan and beige, cream and ivory, olive and khaki, earthy browns and greens, dusty colors like mauve and sage, and warm reds. In one sentence: if a color has yellow in it, or dust on it, it is probably not yours.

Can a cool winter wear black?

Yes. Black is in the cool winter palette, and black with pure white is a classic cool winter look. Navy and charcoal are just as flattering and a little softer, which some cool winters prefer near the face.

Can a cool winter wear gold?

Not well near the face. Cool winter is the season where silver wins most clearly. A pink-toned rose gold is fine in small pieces; yellow gold makes the skin look sallow.

What is the difference between cool winter and cool summer?

Chroma and contrast. Both are as cool as the system goes, but cool winter is clearer and higher in contrast and wears fuchsia, royal blue, black and optic white, while cool summer is softer and medium in contrast and wears raspberry, French blue, navy and soft white. The fuchsia and raspberry test settles it.

Deep winter vs cool winter: what is the difference?

Depth and temperature. Deep winter is darker and slightly warmer, can wear a black-brown or antique gold, and needs a dark anchor for icy colors. Cool winter is icier and fully cool, and wears icy colors on their own.

Bright winter vs cool winter: what is the difference?

Saturation and temperature. Bright winter is neutral-cool and electric, and wears the most vivid colors in the system. Cool winter is fully cool and a touch softer, and looks best in crisp jewel tones and icy lights.

What is the best lipstick color for a cool winter?

True red, blue-red, raspberry, berry and fuchsia. A clear, blue-based true red is the classic cool winter lip.

What is the best hair color for a cool winter?

Cool dark brown, dark ash brown, brown-black, soft black and blue-black, plus natural silver and, for very fair cool winters, icy platinum. Avoid anything golden, honey, caramel, copper or brassy.

How does cool winter color analysis work?

Cool winter color analysis looks at three things: hue, value and chroma. Hue is temperature, and it is the defining trait: cool winter is fully cool, with blue or pink undertones and no gold. Chroma is saturation, and cool winter is medium-high: crisp and clear, a touch softer than bright winter. Value is depth, and cool winter ranges from medium to dark, with icy lights and deep darks both in play. Because the season is defined by coolness first, the most useful home tests compare temperature side by side, silver against gold, white against cream, and then check chroma against the summer next door with the fuchsia and raspberry test.

Is cool winter a rare season?

No. Cool winter is common among people with dark ash hair and clear, cool eyes, and it is more common in olive and deep skin tones than most guides suggest. Because it borders summer, it is frequently confused with cool summer, and because many systems merge it with true winter, many cool winters have been told they are true winters, which is not wrong so much as less specific.

Does my color season change as I get older?

Your season is set mostly by your undertone, which does not change. What can shift is which specific colors flatter you most, especially as hair greys. Cool winters are lucky here: grey is cool, so it suits you, and most cool winters stay cool winter for life and find the icy colors look even better against silver hair.

Find your season, then carry it with you

If this guide sounded like a description of you, the next step is to confirm it. The free MySwatches palette quiz uses your own photos to place you in one of the 17 seasons. Take the free palette quiz

And once you know, the Cool Winter Personal Swatch Card puts the whole cool winter color palette from this guide in your wallet, transparent so you can hold it up to any fabric, waterproof and scratch resistant so it lasts. No more guessing whether a red is blue-based or warm under store lights. See the Cool Winter card